


Silk and Promise

by Farasha



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Happy Ending, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-14
Updated: 2007-10-14
Packaged: 2017-10-03 16:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Farasha/pseuds/Farasha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zelos and Sheena get married. Sheena is terrified, Zelos is an idiot, business as usual.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silk and Promise

The wedding gown was pure white silk, yards of it, and Sheena had never felt more uncomfortable in a garment in her entire life. "I can't _move_ in this," she said, eyeing the train, almost as long as she was tall. "How am I supposed to walk down the aisle in this?"

Raine barely glanced up from where she was adjusting the fit. "That's what you have us for. We're carrying the train."

Sheena tried to twist to look at the way it laced up her back, but a noise of protest from Raine made her stop. "I look ridiculous," she grumbled.

"You _look_ fantastic," Raine corrected. "_I_ look ridiculous."

"I like the bridesmaid dresses," Collette protested, flapping the sleeves of the Mizuhoan-styled kimono with a small giggle. Then she stopped, her eyebrows knitting in concern. "Sheena, what if I trip and fall on your train? You should have picked someone else to be your bridesmaid-"

"I didn't want anyone else," Sheena said. "Who else would I have asked? The only people closer to me than you three are the summon spirits, and while that would have probably made a hell of an impression, I can just _see_ the look on Celsius's face if I had tried to put her in a dress."

Presea paused from where she was examining the pattern on her own kimono. "You can summon the spirits for things like that?" she asked.

"It was a joke," Sheena said. "No, I don't think I can."

"Oh."

Sheena looked over the three of them, and over herself in the mirror. "I don't think any of us have looked less like ourselves in our entire lives," she said.

"What about when I had to dress like the shrine maiden?" Raine asked mildly. "But, yes, we do look a bit… out of character."

Sheena stared at her hair, twisted up and threaded through with a small spray of flowers, and at the dress, cut to the style of Zelos's formal people, and felt a small twinge of disappointment. At least she had managed to get the bridesmaid's dresses to look like her people's. "I don't want to do this," she said.

Collette's hands flew up to her mouth and her eyes got wide. "Sheena, are you serious? Are you all right? Are you sick? You've been planning this for months!"

"I look like one of the girls who grew up here, not like one of my people-"

"You agreed to split the wedding evenly," Raine said. "He'll look like a proper Mizuhoan bridegroom, you know, and you picked out the bridesmaid dresses."

Somehow that didn't make her feel better. "All right. Raine, I think it fits."

"I just wanted to make sure," Raine sighed.

* * * * *

Zelos stood in the center of his own room, holding the sash to his groom's outfit with a baffled look on his face. "Do _any_ of you know how to tie this thing?" he asked the others helplessly.

Lloyd and Genis looked just as baffled as he did. "Don't look at me," Lloyd said. "I had to get help putting this on."

"I think it's some kind of bow," Genis said unhelpfully.

Regal sighed and mutely took the sash, wrapping it around Zelos's waist and tying it in an expert knot in the back. Zelos wilted, grateful, and then eyed his reflection. "I look like an _idiot._"

"So do _I,_" Lloyd said. "We all look like idiots. It was your idea."

"I know," Zelos said with a groan. "I'm an idiot! I can't get married, I'm stupider than you are!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lloyd dropped his hand to his belt, groping for a sword that wasn't there, until Genis caught his arm.

"Calm down, both of you. Zelos, breathe. It'll all turn out right. The ceremony is only an hour or so long, and then you'll be married."

"That's not helping!" Zelos wailed. "You're not helping! Why did I pick you three for groomsmen anyway?"

"Who else were you going to pick?" Lloyd said.

"I have plenty of friends that aren't you-"

"They're all women," Regal put in dryly. "Women can't be groomsmen."

Zelos opened his mouth to argue, and then scowled when he realized Regal was right. He sighed, and then straightened abruptly. "I'm going to be _late!_"

* * * * *

"It's almost time," Raine said. "Just wait until the music cues, and then you can go."

"I just want to get this over with," Sheena muttered. "To Nifelheim with ceremony-"

"It'll all be over in a few more minutes," Collette said with a reassuring smile.

Then the organ cued, and the doors of the chapel swung open, and Sheena nearly tripped over her own hem in her haste to match her steps.

Her hands trembled around the bouquet as she walked in time with the music down the aisle, and a sudden urge to turn and run from their unknown future together nearly overtook her.

* * * * *

When she came through the door of the chapel in that white dress with the spray of flowers in her hands and her hair, the look of love and hope and vague fear in her eyes, Lloyd had to elbow him in the side to make him remember to breathe.

She looked absolutely beautiful, and all the stress evaporated as he suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be feeling at his own _wedding._

He looked like a proper Mizuhoan, except for the flaming red of his hair falling over his shoulders and the haphazard knot in the back – she would lay odds that he tied it himself – and the crushing grip she had on the flowers loosened a little. A smile spread across her face.

If they hadn't have been to countless wedding rehersals, the words would have flown completely out of both of their heads, but as it was, when the priest said "as long as you both shall live," she knew to say "I will," and when he said "bless this ring," Zelos knew to say "With this ring I thee wed."

And although they both knew it would come already, when he finally said "You may kiss the bride," it sent a little thrill through both of them, and they kissed like it was their first.

* * * * *

The wedding had an overwhelming feeling of "too good to be true," and even at the reception it felt like a dream. Sheena knew she wasn't supposed to, but she aimed with the bouquet, and Collette actually caught it instead of dropping it, which was a wonder and a miracle in and of itself. Zelos's teasing punch to Lloyd's shoulder nearly knocked him over and started a fight, but that was normal and a relief in and of itself.

Sheena didn't dance, not the way Zelos did, and so when he pulled her to the dance floor for their first dance as a couple, it took all her willpower not to grab onto the nearest guest or piece of furniture like she would never let go.

"Relax," he said, one hand on the small of her back and a smile on his face.

"I'm really, really bad at this," she said.

"It's okay. You don't have to be good at everything."

She stepped on his feet anyway.

* * * * *

"Too good to be true," she murmured, and Raine looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"What?" she asked.

"I said, I knew it was too good to be true," Sheena said, her hands locked in her lap.

Raine followed her gaze, and Sheena thought she was going to murder something when her eyes found Zelos on the dance floor, whirling someone expertly in his arms, a flirtatious smile on his lips. "That beast," she said. "It's your _wedding._"

"It's just – Raine, leave it be," Sheena said, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "It's just him. He's always been like that."

"No, I won't leave it be," she snapped, and rose from her seat, crossing the dance floor with a determined stride.

Zelos felt the tap on his shoulder and turned, smiling, until he saw Raine standing behind him with a look of polite murder on her face. "May I have this dance?" she asked, almost pushing the other girl away from him.

"Of course," Zelos said, nervous. As soon as he whirled her away from the girl, she stomped on his foot, and he winced. "All right, what did I do?"

"It's your wedding, you uncouth man-flirt," Raine said, a smile still fixed on her face. "Look at your _wife._"

Zelos spun Raine in that direction, spotting a look of resignation in Sheena's eyes across the room before she looked away quickly. "What? What did I do?"

"You were _flirting._"

"I wasn't! She said she didn't dance!"

"So you don't dance either, you thickheaded nitwit."

Zelos glanced over at Sheena again, and stopped dancing suddenly when he saw that her chair was empty. Raine followed his eyes and her lips compressed, and she slapped him on the back of the head. "All right! I'll go after her!"

The dancers parted in front of him, and he got to the edge of the floor in time to see her train disappearing through the doorway. He broke into a fast walk, and caught up to her just as she was about to leave the chapel.

"Go back," she said, defeated. "I know you like to socialize."

He shook his head and turned her by the shoulder, hopping over her train when he nearly stepped on it. "I made a promise, baby, and I'm not breaking a promise to you again," Zelos grabbed for her hand desperately, clinking their rings together almost on purpose. "I wasn't flirting, swear to whatever you hold holy."

"No more excuses," she said, trying to pull her hand away.

"I'm not making excuses! Sheena, please, listen – it's polite-"

"You just don't know any other way to be-"

"I'm _trying_ here, please just-"

"Just go back inside; I'll go home-"

Zelos grabbed her face in both hands and kissed her, pulling her close to him by the hand he still had. The kiss lasted for some time, and he didn't pull back until she felt him relax against him.

"We'll both go home," he said. "The party can go on without us."

Sheena put her fingers up to her lips, her eyes wide, and smiled. "I love you."

"Forever," Zelos said, kissing her hand.


End file.
